Success!!

Congratulation to Club Instructor Trevor Van de Velde Smith who passed his Yondan (4th Dan) and also to Marek (Mark) Wozniak who, at his first attempt, passed his Shodan (1st Dan) at the recent 3 day JKA England International Course at the K2 Crawley. Fantastic! Well done!!

Trevor (left) and Mark (right)

Pictured below are the Instructors and students from Wareham & Purbeck Club who attended the course with International Instructors and Grading Examiners Sensei Ohta 7th Dan, Sensei Imamura 7th Dan and Sensei Hanzaki 7th Dan

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Standing at the back (left to right) are Paul White, Miron Wozniak, Elzbieta Wozniak, Glyn Morgan, Trevor Van de Velde Smith and Mark Wozniak. Sitting at the front (left to right) are Sensei Ohta, Sensei Imamura and Sensei Hanzaki.

Additionally special mention must also go to Elzbieta (Ella) and Miron Wozniak who both did extremely well when they competed at the JKA England Open Championships at the K2 Sports Centre Crawley on November 3rd. Miron achieved 2nd place in Kata and 3rd in Kumite and Ella achieved 3rd in Kumite. Brilliant!!

Well Done Trevor!

Congratulations goes to Trevor Davenport who passed his Shodan (1st DAN) at the 4 Day JKA England International Course at the K2 Sports Centre Crawley. Another brilliant first attempt success! Well done Trevor!

Ania, pictured above with Instructor Sensei Glyn Morgan 5th DAN, showed a lot of determination to achieve her grading by travelling over 400 miles to reach the venue, very tiring but worth it!

Members' Achievements 2013

Congratulations Paul!

Congratulations goes to Paul White who passed his Nidan (2nd Dan) at Bath University Course on 30th November, a well deserved success. Paul showed great determination to complete the grading due to injuring his big toe during the kumite (sparring) part of the grading, which was later found to be broken! Well done Paul, get well soon!

Members' Achievements 2012

Hard Training Pays Off!

Congratulations goes to Manny Perez-Alvarez who passed his 2nd Dan at the Bath Sports & Leisure Centre on Sunday 19th February. Grading Examiners were JKAE Chief Instructor Sensei Ohta and Sensei Ismail.
Manny's dedication to putting in the extra hours of practice inside and outside of the dojo over the many months has certainly paid off. Not bad for 66 years of age! A great achievement and a real inspiration to others! well done Manny!

Members' Achievements 2011

Something to Inspire You!

I doubt that there are many people who have started (with the approval of their doctor) to practise karate from scratch just before their 66th birthday, but this is what I did three years ago, and I am very glad now that I did.

After taking early retirement due to ill health I had spent the previous seven years attending the gym regularly and had gained some benefit from it, but found that the experience of plodding away on the treadmill whilst watching Countdown was – to put it mildly - beginning to pall. More importantly, while the machines and exercises were of benefit to the various parts of my body, I was aware that I was not doing anything which developed my overall co-ordination or related to my body as a whole. Neither was I a member any longer of a group other than my family, and neither was I learning anything new.

Not having any interest in competitive sports in the conventional sense I began to consider transferring to a Yoga group. However after watching one of my sons take his grading for his brown belt with the Wareham & Purbeck Shotokan Club it occurred to me that even at my age I might be able to take part, and I later discussed it with Sensei Glyn Morgan. He emphasised that each practitioner moves at their own pace and is assessed in relation to their physical ability and potential, which of course varies substantially from person to person. We agreed that I would give it a try, and three years later – despite having to miss nearly all of the last year due to problems with medication – I am still here and training for my green belt grading.

The benefits which I derive from karate (and which I began to miss badly when unable to practice last year) are not confined to the physical, although I am stronger and probably fitter than at any time since my twenties. My morale and self esteem, which were at a very low ebb when I retired, have been greatly improved. This has been due in part to the satisfaction of knowing that I work hard in the sessions, and that this has resulted in passing three gradings.

It has been due also to the way in which – despite my age and complete lack of experience - I was immediately accepted and supported by all the members of the group, regardless of the grades of the people concerned. This showed itself in such actions as one of the black belts presenting me, on my third session and without my asking, with some information on basic positions and techniques which he had taken the trouble to print off from the Internet. Although in most of the sessions I have been the junior grade there has never been any sense of being sidelined, and when on occasions I have been unable to keep up physically, I can still watch and learn by using the other grades as a model of what I am aiming towards.

I can understand that some people who are drawn towards karate may have doubts about their ability to cope with the demands which it makes, and therefore are reluctant to try it. I can only say that if I can do it, anyone can.

John Bennetts
29.6.2011

Pictured below is John in freestyle stance and with some of his regular training 'partners'

Bath

Congratulations to Bob Weekes on successfully passing the Coaching Licence Examination at the recent training course at Bath University on March 19th. Well done!

Members' Achievements 2010

MORE Dan Grading Success!

Congratulations go to to Michael and William Selby who have both showed real determination to pass their 1st Dan Black Belt Gradings on Sunday 21st March at Bath University, well done to you both, a real success for the club and the Selby family!

Members' Achievements 2009

Dan Grading Success!

On Sunday 5th December at the latest Black and Brown Belt Training Course and Dan Grading four club members successfully passed and were awarded 1st Dan Black Belt by the JKAE Chief Instructor Sensei Ohta 6th Dan.
Also on the grading table were Sensei Ismail and visiting Instructor from Japan Headquarters Sensei Chubachi. A really superb result for the club! Congratulations go to Andy, Bob, Rianna and Rebecca.
Well done!

Pictured above from left to right Andrew Selby, Rianna Varney, Rebecca Varney and Robert Weekes.

Guildford

August 2009: Pictured are members of the club who travelled to Guildford to attend the
JKA England August 2009 Summer Course. The 3 day course was held from
Friday 28th to Sunday 30th August at the Spectrum Leisure Centre in
Guildford with a JKA Dan grading on the Sunday following training. The
course instructors for the 3 days were:

Sensei Ueki 8th Dan JKA Honbu dojo Tokyo.

Sensei Taniyama 6th Dan JKA Honbu dojo Tokyo.

Sensei Ohta 6th Dan JKA England.

Sensei Taniyama (five times JKA Kumite champion) was making his first visit
to the course and as usual the level of instruction from all three
instructors was of an exceptionally high standard with the three hour
sessions broken down into one hour sessions with each instructor. Each
day's instruction included in depth Kihon, Kumite and Kata training over
the three hours.

Nationals

June 2009: This year our small club will be sending its biggest ever group of students to compete in the nationals, which are happening soon. We wish them all good luck.

Belgrade again

June 2009: Hayleigh Hibbs, our junior 2nd dan has gone to Belgrade to the european nationals, where she did very well in kumite and kata. She is a very talented student and continues to improve.

Sensei Glyn in the JKAE

June 2009: Our club Sensei, sensei Glyn Morgan, is now the JKAE's regional officer for southwest. This means anyone in this region who wants information about the JKAE should email him using the address behind the "contact" link at the top of this page. Glyn is now also a member of the JKAE's excecutive commitee.

Belgrade

May 2009: This month Hayleigh Hibbs, our junior squad member, will be competing in the Junior Championships in Belgrade. This is fantastic news for Hayleigh, best of luck!

Members' Achievements 2008

Alan Larcombe passes 3rd dan at guildford summer course

August 2008: Alan graded under;

Ueki sensei 8th dan

Kurasako sensei 7th dan

Ohta sensei 6th dan

Larson sensei 6th dan

The grading was in private, examiners only in the room with the students, Alan's basics (kihon) went well, as did his kumite (sparring), and his choice of kata (chinte) went well. With the above examiners you know for sure you were not passed just for turning up!

The course itself was three days and very technical, with lots of info on how to improve technique, hip and stance work, and on the kata side it was pointed out several times by the senseis over the course that more so for the higher grades, one should find the kata to suit you which may not be the one you like! Very important for gradings.

Well done Alan!

Hayleigh reselected for the English Squad

March 08: Hayliegh Hibbs, our junior 2nd dan has been selected for a second year for the english squad. She is training hard and commuting most weekends to London from Dorset for squad training. She is an inspiration to the other junior members in our small rural club. Thanks go to her parents for their support. Watch this space for her progress this year!

Competing abroad

November 07: Hayleigh Hibbs, our junior 2nd dan who is on the jkae squad, went to France recently and came first place in her catagory for kumite and seccond place in kata. We at the club are proud of her continuing acheivements. Well done.

Black Belt for Nathan

September 07: Nathan Khan passed his 1st dan grading under Sensei Ukei,
Sensei Imamura, and Sensei Ohta. Nathan started karate at the age of six in
Hertfordshire, and after moving to dorset he tried a couple of clubs before coming
to the club in Wareham and trained hard for this recent acheivement.

Well done to him.

Hayleigh and Shaz selected for squad

August 07: Hayliegh Hibbs, a junior member, and Shaz Horab, a senior member, are both on the jkae national squad. Hayliegh attended the jka junior europeans championships in 2007 which was a first for her in competing in a international event, and and has been selected for the English squad and team kata for 2008. The club is proud to have these to members representing the club and the jkae.